Earthquake evacuations, Tokyo

Keeping the kids warm in the park

There was a major earthquake today in Japan in the North just off the coast of Sendai. Reports at the moment are saying it is somewhere between magnitude 8.4 and 8.9. Every time I hear the figure it seems to go higher and higher.

I was out at the time and felt the street underneath me shake a lot. Everyone seemed a bit panicked and made a run for the middle of the street. I thought it seemed more dangerous to maybe get run over by traffic than it was to be flattened by a building.

Straight after the quake, people standing outside not wanting to go back in their buildings

Here are a few photos I snapped from my iPhone. So far the news looks fairly ok for Tokyo, mainly with a few fires, and transportation problems. Up North there are tsunami waves moving through villages and airports. The TV coverage tends to show the worst of a disaster, although it is real. On the street here in Tokyo at least, I can say people are helping each and other and hoping it is not too bad up North.

Ebisu parkMaybe I should take the rocket out of hereMaybe this plane could load up with a few people and leave the scene quickly

Phones were down for a long time, but mails / twitter etc were able to keep people in touch. Very convenient.

perdomot

amity

I’m glad you are safe; and also my other Tokyo friends and acquaintances. I’m glad Tokyo wasn’t harmed, but Sendai .. it’s been devastated by the Tsunami. The situation with the Nuclear power plant worries me the most now.
It’s really strange for me, to think that i`ll be in Japan in 3 weeks time (Tokyo) after such a huge scale of devastation has occurred in the country. Provided the Nuclear power plant situation doesn’t get catastrophic, I imagine by the time I get there the Tokyoites will have resumed their daily lives but still ; the thought of what had happened not long ago and being there just seems weird to me.
I guess we Europeans aren’t used to much in the sense of natural disasters